The 2024 ENR California’s Best Projects competition honors an array of projects boasting dynamic and innovative design and construction methods. This year’s entries featured ambitious green energy projects, major transportation upgrades and an assortment of impressive building renovations and upgrades.

ENR California’s Best Projects are divided into two regions, Northern California and Southern California (which includes Hawaii). Almost 100 projects were submitted for judging in this year’s competition. An independent panel of judges selected 57 of those for recognition—30 Best Projects and 27 awards of merit.

Judges from all corners of the AEC community spent weeks reviewing entries for achievement in five areas: project challenges and solutions, safety programs, innovative design and construction solutions, contribution to the construction industry and the community as well as design quality and craftsmanship. Projects were ineligible for an award if they had a construction-related death.

The meticulous renovation of a Los Angeles landmark garnered the UCLA Nimoy Theater a Best Project nod.
by Paul Vu/HANA

Judging Panels

Entries from each California region—Northern and Southern—were evaluated by separate panels of judges. Over a course of a month, entries were independently reviewed, scored on specific criteria and then discussed in a virtual gathering with fellow judges to finalize choices for Best Projects, awards of merit and Projects of the Year. Judges were asked to recuse themselves in cases of conflict of interest.

Special thanks go out to this year’s team of Northern and Southern California judges:

• Amer Bata, deputy department manager, AECOM
• Doug Conrath, principal (retired), CRB
• Steve Friar, regional director of planning, Western US, Hensel Phelps
• Red Gayita, regional executive/special projects, Bernards
• Donald Kahn, project executive, Largo Concrete
• Beatriz Kim, engineering team lead, Rosendin
• Phil LeCocq, project management, division of engineering, California Dept. of Water Resources
• Rory Madden, senior project manager, coDesign
• Danica Mason, principal, Red Team Go!
• David Mori, engineering manager, City of Anaheim Public Works
• Allison Otto, president and CEO, Otto Construction
• Caleigh Raymer, construction manager, PCL

Best Project-level winners for each California region will now advance to the national contest, where they will compete with the winners from nine other regions for ENR’s Best of the Best awards. Judging for the national contest will begin later this year, and the results will be announced in early 2025.

YouTube’s San Burno, Calif., campus expansion earned an award of merit in part due to its emphasis on sustainable materials.
Photo by Mariko Reed/Google

Excellence in Safety and Sustainability

This year’s contest also features two special awards for each California region: Excellence in Safety, which has been a part of the competition for over a decade, and Excellence in Sustainability, which is in its third year. The judges recognized two safety winners and five sustainability winners between the two regions.

The two special awards for sustainability and safety for both of the California regions were judged by separate independent panels.

Safety judges were Matt Jones, vice president, environmental health and safety, Tutor Perini, and Alan Hayes, safety director for California, JTM Construction Group.

Sustainability judges were Erin McConahey, principal, Arup, and Celia Hoag, sustainability leader, Southwest, DPR Construction.

Projects of the Year

In addition to selecting category winners, judges for the main competition also chose three projects from each California region for consideration as Project of the Year, the regional contest’s highest honor.

For Northern California, the finalists were Sonoma Academy Community Performing Arts Center (Best Project for K-12 education) and St. Clare at Capitol Park (Best Project for renovation/restoration). Northern California Project of the Year honors went to the 200 Park (Best Project for office/retail/mixed-use).

For Southern California, the Project of the Year finalists were the I-405 Improvement Project (Best Project for highway/bridge) and Tarzana Reimagined (Best Project for health care). The Southern California Project of the Year honors went to the Delta Sky Way Program at LAX (Best Project for airport/transit).

The winning project teams for Southern California will be honored on Oct. 15 in Los Angeles at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel at California Plaza. The winning project teams for Northern California will be celebrated in San Francisco on Oct. 17 at the Parc 55 Hilton.